3/3/12

I love craft fantasies--books in which the characters make things with their hands, books in which crafty creativity is the cornerstone of a character's being, or in which craft production drives the plot. A particular sub-genre of these that I love are textile fantasies--with weaving, sewing, knitting or other textile arts front and center.

I've just bitten the bullet and made a new "textile fantasy" label. There you'll find the following books:

Here are other textile fantasies that I haven't read/reviewed (many recommended by you all back when I started with this):

A Curse Dark as Gold, by Elizabeth BunceWeaveworld, by Clive BarkerGathering Blue, by Lois LowryDragon Slippers, by Jessica Day GeorgeThe Broken Thread, by Linda SmithSandry's Book, by Tamora PierceCrewel, by Gennifer Albin (I'm not sure this is going to count, since the textiles involved seem to be the fabric of time....)

Any other recommendations? Why aren't there more books with magical embroidery?

Someday I'll have a whole nother page up at the top of Craft Fantasies...glass blowing, metal working, pottery....feel free to pass on suggestions for any of those too! Not that I have time to read and review a fraction of what I want too, but still....

I love that book, the crafty part most of all. The lesson he learns from weaving rings in my head every time I am disatsified with my own efforts, and sometimes even compells me to go back and undo what I did, so as to do it better... And as well as the crafts, we get a nice lesson in sheep herding under difficult circumstances, which I enjoyed.

But I think I will have to leave this one (in my mind at least!) as general craft fantasy, and not textile!

What a fun series! (I say, putting away the knitting to comment.)Jessica Day George's _Princess of the Midnight Ball_'s hero knits, and eventually breaks the spell on the princesses with his knitting, though we don't know until the end that it's magic knitting. Does that count?

I hope you'll read Crewel and decide what you think, because I do think it fits with your description, but I'm not entirely sure. And I don't want to give too much about how it works away ;) Very cool list. I love to sew, which is part of the inspiration for the book!